HUNTSVILLE, Alabama – The Community Foundation of Greater Huntsville is thrilled to announce the 2022 Racial Equity Fund grants totaling $90,000. The twelve award recipients are addressing racial equity gaps to improve quality of life for all who live in the Greater Huntsville community. With a generous lead investment by Meta, donors came together to support the strategic work of the Racial Equity Fund.
The Community Foundation’s Racial Equity Fund was launched in 2020 with the financial support of 70 Founding Donors to provide community capital to address equity issues. Funds granted in the first grant cycle totaled $115,000 for 13 local nonprofit organizations. In 2021, over $70,000 was granted to 11 local nonprofits. Each of these grants support local programs and projects that span the four focus areas of the Racial Equity Fund:
- Economic opportunity
- Education
- Health and wellness
- Neighborhoods and communities
This year, the Community Foundation received 35 grant applications for projects totaling 401,000.00. “The Greater Huntsville/Madison County community is continuing to grow, therefore we must continue to work collectively as a community to ensure that we are providing equitable access and opportunities to everyone who wants to be part of the success of our thriving community.” Gary T. Whitley, Jr., Racial Equity Fund Grants Committee. After an extensive review of all grant applications, the Grants Committee comprised of a diverse group of community members with more than half of the members representing racial and ethnic minorities awarded the following projects grant funding:
- Bartley Bridge: Black Entrepreneurship Academy for Teens (BEAT) – $10,000.00 Provides youth in Northwood and other underserved communities with the knowledge, abilities, and resources necessary to become successful entrepreneurs.
- Family Services Center: Financial Literacy & Housing Counseling Services – $10,000.00 Offers wrap-around financial literacy and housing counseling services on an array of financial concepts and practices to under-served and low-to-moderate income individuals and families in the community.
- The CornerStone Initiative: Faith and Finances – $10,000.00 Provides a comprehensive, 12-week financial literacy course designed to transfer basic, financial management skills to vulnerable people in low-to-moderate income families and creates plans for success to address specific financial challenges common to those living in poverty.
- Village of Promise: Family Connections – $10,000.00 Equips families with the knowledge and skills needed to help advance them out of poverty through a two-generation literacy program that includes four key areas of education, social & emotional growth, physical health & wellness, and professional development.
- National Child Advocacy Center: Direct Therapy Services for Sexually Abused Children from Minority and Underserved Populations – $8,540.00 Provides free therapy for minority and underserved children in Huntsville, Madison, and Madison County who have been sexually abused.
- Big Brothers Big Sisters of The TN Valley: Part of the Village – $7,820.00 Recruits, trains, and matches men to act as role models/Big Brothers for local youth men by providing activities to promote social, emotional, and educational well-being.
- Boys & Girls Clubs of North Alabama: Driving Academy – $7,820.00 Prepares our underserved youth, who face daily transportation challenges for employment and school, for the permit and driver’s license exams and to drive safely.
- Huntsville Housing Authority: Workforce Development Initiative – $7,820.00 Bolsters training/employment outcomes for HHA residents, creates/enhances partnerships that identify opportunities to place HHA residents into jobs created by HHAs’ Business Capital Projects, and helps HHA meet the statutory and regulatory requirements of Section 3 of the HUD Development Act of 1968.
- Clinica Medica Moscati, Inc.: Medical Testing Equipment – $5,000.00 Provides low-cost primary care for uninsured patients and under-served members of our community at the nonprofit primary medical clinic.
- Huntsville Inner City Learning Center: Junior High Summer Growth Camp – $5,000.00 Provides structured junior high summer program addressing physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual needs of at-risk students.
- Decatur Youth Symphony, Inc.: World Percussion and Breakfast with the Classics – $4,000.00 Operates two free before and after school music programs focused on providing high quality music instruction with an emphasis on racial equity and at-risk youth.
- Huntsville Community Drumline: All Area Youth and Retirees Free Percussion Instruction Program – $4,000.00 Offers tuition free professional music education for 1st-9th grade children, youth, and retirees with a focus on percussion instrument while also providing tutoring and mentoring support for the children and youth with performance opportunities for all.
The Community Foundation believes that generosity is an investment in the future you wish to see. Gifts to the Racial Equity Fund will help create a community where all residents have the opportunity to fulfill their highest potential. “When we tackle existing equity gaps, we expand opportunities to many people across our community,” says Melissa Thompson, CEO and President of the Community Foundation. “Only then can we experience the changes necessary to be a place where all residents can learn, work, and further contribute to a healthy, thriving, and prosperous place to call home.”
Because this issue is not one that will be resolved quickly, the Racial Equity Fund provides a lasting legacy of support for this issue. This goal is achieved in two primary ways. Fifty percent of all donations are used for current year grantmaking, and the balance is endowed to provide a permanent source of funding to address the ongoing needs for racial equity.
Together we take purposeful action to create a community where we all can thrive. For more information about this fund, the grant process, or to donate, please visit CommunityFoundationHSV.org/Equity.
